Author
Topic: Burning Cornmeal Help (Read 2937 times)

Everytime I cook pizza on the stone the cornmeal I use so it wont stick to the peel and stone burns and smokes and sets off the smoke alarms then we have to open the windows and fan the detector.Is there an alternative ? Thanks ! I do run the oven at its highest temp also.

I would suggest that you change your peel to a slotted metal peel. Form you dough on a slick,( tile,granite,steel), counter with just a little flour and then scoop the dressed pie onto the peel, as you move to your stone or other cooking surface the loose flour will fall and you get a pie with no flour burning.This was suggested to me by one of the members here and has been one of the biggest improvements in my pizza making process.Try it, you'll like it.

An excessive amount of cornmeal on the peel will create problems as described as will an excessive amount of any kind of dusting flour. It might have something to do with the way you are opening/handling the dough. I always use plenty of flour when opening the dough into a pizza skin, but then I pick it up and give it a toss or two, if you elect not to toss it, try brushing the excess flour off of one side then flip the dough piece over and brush off the other side, with that done, immediately place the pizza skin onto a lightly dusted peel (my personal favorite peel dust is made from equal parts of semolina flour, regular flour and fine cornmeal. Once you have the skin on the peel, give it a few shakes to ensure it is free from the peel, now dress the skin and take it directly to the oven, in some cases I've been known to give the peel a couple shakes while I'm dressing the skin just to make sure it is not adhering to the peel. I have both wood and metal peels and of all my peels, the wood ones work best as a prep peel. The solid aluminum peels are best relegated to use an an oven peel. A good wood prep peel is, in my opinion, worth its weight in gold. There have been a number of excellent discussions on the use and making of wood peel here.Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor

I've tried flour, cornmeal and semolina and all three burn. I try to use as little as possible and if the dough sticks to the peel, I use a piece of dental floss to release and it slides onto my peel.I will have to try topping the pizza on the counter and scooping it up with my peel to launch. That seems like it would be effective.